Creepily Enthusiastic Superheroes

Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca

by Jamaica Dyer

Honestly, how do I begin? I am sent this great preview comic and I devour it and enjoy it greatly. It's funny, has lots of action, the art is cool and indie, it stars a very powerful skating street girl. I am hooked. It even seems like the creators have experience with living on the streets. So I arrange an interview with the artist. I get my responses back and what do I learn, but that the book I had read is actually a carefully crafted parody of superhero comics. I had had no idea I had been reading a superhero comic. There were evil scientists and ninjas and the mayor called our Street Angel to his office for help, but it never occurred to me that it was a superhero story. It's just that good. This book can easily be enjoyed by hardcore alternative comic readers who want an action-packed adventure on the streets with lots of laughs, or superhero fans who have never even picked up a book in black-and-white who want to see a super-powered girl who doesn't wear tights. So take a read over this interview with Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, and be sure to pick up Street Angel in March!

Sequential Tart: Hello Jim, welcome to the interview! Would you like anything to drink?

Jim Rugg: No thanks. I hope you don't mind that Brian tagged along.

Brian Maruca: Hi there, Jamaica. How do you do?

ST: How long have you been reading comics, and which were your early favorites?

JR: I started reading comics when I was 12. Now I'm 26, so 14 years. My early favorites were The Hulk, the Uncanny X-Men, and everything by Frank Miller. In high school, I found Chester Brown's Yummy Fur and that had a profound effect on how I viewed comics.

BM: I started reading comics in the mid '80s and gave them up somewhere around Marvel's introduction of books for the "new universe" in the, what, late '80s/early '90s. My favorites were Daredevil, X-Men, and The New Mutants. Spider-Man was okay, but with three titles to choose from (Web of, Amazing, Peter Parker ... ), I couldn't really pick just one. I can't imagine what people do now. Now, I just don't read comics except for the occasional book that Jim passes along to me. If anyone thinks I'm missing out, feel free to send me stuff.

ST: What did you want to be when you grew up? Was artist always in the picture, and if not, when did you decide you wanted to be an artist?

JR: I always loved to draw and make things. When I decided to go to college I chose graphic design because it was art related while still offering me a reasonable chance to support myself. I don't really consider myself an artist. I'm not sure why, maybe I feel pretentious referring to myself as an artist. When I was growing up, my family would call me an artist because I did a realistic rendering of something. At some point, I realized that by these standards I'd never be as good of an artist as a cheap, disposable camera. I also hate reading interviews with people who draw shitty comics and insist they are fine artists. Same as the camera, if the guy who draws Toughman X is an artist, then I don't really want that label. To get back to your question, I knew I wanted to draw comics as soon as I started reading them. I think I made the decision that day.

BM: Without trying to sound glib, I never had any real idea what I wanted to be; I'm not very good at planning.

ST: Who would you consider to be influences in your art?

JR: Dan Clowes, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Eddie Campbell, Chester Brown, Alex Toth, the Hernandez bros., Dave Sim, Crumb, Ted McKeever's Metropol, Gary Panter, Chris Ware, Charles Burns.

BM: It's too hard to say. I don't read comics, so I don't follow any those guys. I'm not smart enough to have picked up anything significant from any of my favorite authors. I don't think I have a main influence, just lots of little influences ... and television.

ST: Which do you consider more important: practicing art on your own or going to school to learn proper techniques?

JR: Do you mean self-taught versus formal training? I'm not sure I'm answering this right, but I'll give it a shot, as I understand your question. It goes without saying that one must practice all the time. So that's the most vital thing. I think you can find good examples of both self-taught and formally educated cartoonists. I think schools are very beneficial for art training but not absolutely necessary. However, I think they are vital for writing. An artist can learn to draw by study what is around him or her. I think it's more difficult for a writer to learn the craft on his or her own than for an artist. The worst-case scenario is learning to draw from comics. That's not self-teaching, that's retardation.

Overall, I believe the story is the more important part of a comic. It is a terrible thing in comics that critics often break the writing and art into separate entities to evaluate. This is stupid. Who cares how good the art is, if it's in service of a poor story. A comic book can't be a good comic book without a good story. Yes, it can be enjoyable to look at, but that's not a good comic. A comic book is more than just pictures. Comic art cannot save a bad story, although bad comic art can hurt a good story.

The idea that the art and writing can be considered separately is absurd. Once they are joined in the comics format, they become a different media. It's no longer just drawing and writing. And it hurts the medium when comic critics choose to ignore the result of the drawing/writing marriage and judge the original ingredients. This idea of breaking apart the art and writing comes from business decisions made decades ago by publishers in order to create the fastest turnaround time. It has nothing to do with creating quality comics.

BM: I don't know about drawing, but there really are wrong ways to write, so if you're practicing the wrong way, you're not doing yourself any favors. It's all about workshops, feedback, and revision. Class should give you the framework to see what sucks (your writing) and how to make it suck less (revision), feedback is invaluable.

Here's some handy advice (save you some higher education costs): 1. You're writing for an audience (if people aren't getting it, it's probably your fault and not theirs). 2. If you're unwilling to accept that (i.e., "I write for myself", see point 1.), just keep a journal and don't show it to or torture anyone else. 3. Revise.

ST: Have you made any comics before Street Angel?

JR: I made a number of mini-comics, most notably a series called Outfitters, and a couple of 'zines before Street Angel.

BM: I collaborated with Jim on a few things before this ... and we have some non-Street Angel ideas/scripts that are on hold.

ST: How did you and your co-writer Brian Maruca meet?

JR: We work in nearby cubes.

ST: The subject matter for your new book Street Angel is based on street life and homelessness. Did you grow up in a situation similar to this?

JR: Not at all, my upbringing occurred in a small, suburban-like hick town in the foothills of Appalachia. The road I grew up on didn't even have sidewalks, it had a guardrail. Both of my parents are still married as well, so I can't relate to the orphan part either.

BM: Nope — upper middle class (the best kind of middle class). You get to tease the help.

JR: Part of the reason for Street Angel's environment and tone stems from how opposite our own backgrounds are from hers. I get irritated whenever I see interviews with pop culture stars and they are clueless to their environment, society, politics, and the world around them; it's embarrassing to watch. Street Angel's "gritty, realistic" setting is in part a parody of the "gangsta" rap flavor that embodies so much of today's youth pop culture.

ST: Who came up with the concept for Street Angel? What is the story behind Street Angel?

BM: I'm pretty sure Jim came up with the name Street Angel, which was a stroke of genius and one of the few things we both accepted outright. Everything else has been a matter of making your case, listening to the response, and then trying to salvage something useful out of your original idea.

Our initial concept was to do a creepily enthusiastic, yet painfully bad superhero comic. We didn't really want people to know if we were serious or not; somehow it shifted into doing a superhero comic enthusiastically.

JR: It's impossible for me to make a comic book without being enthusiastic about it. It takes way too much energy to just go through the motions. We revised the script over and over before I felt ready to draw it. By the time we were happy with the script, it had become slightly different than our initial idea.

The name stuck, though. We named the book early on. We came up with the lamest, most generic, corny superhero name possible and then two months later I heard of DC's Fallen Angel. I wonder if Peter David was being ironic when he came up with 'Fallen Angel?' If so, I think he did well.

ST: Who do you say the audience is for this book?

JR: I hope female comic book readers give it a try, especially if they are unhappy with the majority of female characters found in comics, particularly superhero comics. I also want superhero fans to give it a chance because it is a superhero book, more or less. And I want the alternative crowd to read it because that's the crowd I guess I'd belong in, if someone were classifying me. Street Angel is a book I think I would enjoy as a reader. I think a lot of alternative comic fans share a similar comics-reading background with me. I grew up reading superhero comics and then gradually my tastes shifted to underground, alternative, and small press books. If someone shares this history as a fan, I think the book might appeal to him or her, even though it's labeled superhero.

Street Angel has been likened to Silver Age books but I don't want anyone to misinterpret this as 'retro'. This is not a gimmick book that will feature the same formulaic plot with a different clever, colorful villain each issue. It's not camp or kitsch, though both may appear at times. We want each issue to surprise and excite readers and to keep them looking forward to what may happen next.

This is not a children's or all-ages book either. I think the storytelling will be too sophisticated and the subject matter will be too harsh at times for some kids.

Anyone sick of decompressed storytelling should check this out. When we started this book, we quickly added decompressed storytelling to the list of things we wanted to target. We made a conscious decision to go back to old comics and learn how they were able to tell long, complete stories in a fraction of the time and space that creators use today. I recently read in Augie de Bleck's column that he broke down an early issue of Spider-Man for Marvel's new all-ages line, and he figured that this one issue of Amazing Spider-Man contained about three issues of storytelling by today's standards. I understand how decompressed storytelling works. But I don't understand why anyone would ever want to do that? Is it so more splash-page style art can be shown? I just don't understand why. In this case, it was for an all-ages book, it's not like they're using the extra 200% to expand the personal lives of the characters in order to offer some 7-year-old a greater grasp of the character's psyche (in fact, Augie recommended that the romance and stuff be toned down for the benefit of the all-ages marketing plan).

Plus, how is asking a kid to wait three months for the complete story a good idea? Wouldn't that be less desirable for a demographic plagued by ADD?

ST: What was the inspiration to make the lead character, Jesse, a very strong teenage girl?

JR: Street Angel acknowledges many of the genre trappings of the superhero. Some of these conventions are adhered to for various effects and some are not. A very strong teenage girl is the opposite of the norm in a genre that I no longer like that much. Another thing that troubles me with the genre are the weird sexual fetishes. There's a lot of weird stuff going on in this genre and there always has been. Anyway, an underage, unsexualized girl seemed to fly in the face of most of the fetishes that I associate with the superhero genre.

BM: Are clothes hard to draw? I don't know. I'm all for escapist fantasy but isn't all of that T-and-A distracting and unnecessary? What purpose does it serve other than eye candy? Titillation is fine, right, sexuality is fine, too, but comics seem obsessively unhealthy about it.

ST: Is she based on anyone you know, or is she a composite of yourself put into a different form?

JR: My dead sister.

BM: He's kidding. She's an imaginary, barely-teenage, homeless orphan as seen through the eyes of two guys who've never worried about where the next meal is coming from.

ST: There's an alternate cover to Street Angel #1 showing a much older skater girl. Was that the original concept for the character?

JR: I assume you're referring to the back cover of issue 1. I'm not a fan of alternate covers. No, that was never a concept for the character. It's supposed to be a mock Jim Lee cover, intended for the amusement of Street Angel fans. I plan to ape different artists and imagery for each back cover. I thought people might get a kick out of it.

BM: I insisted on something wang-like aimed at her face, but Jim had already accepted my crackling energy fist idea and wasn't about to let me win two battles. It all just goes back to why she's drawn the way she is.

ST: There's a lot of martial arts shown in the pages of Street Angel, do you do any martial arts yourself or do you do the moves from observation?

JR: Um, no. I don't even watch kung fu movies. I'm pretty sure I'd be useless in a street fight.

BM: I'd probably hurt myself running away from a fight.

ST: Have you always been a fan of ninjas? Will they be a reoccurring theme in the series?

JR: I suppose I like ninjas an average amount. I'm not a ninja super fan, if that's what you're wondering. They will be reoccurring. After all, they are a sizeable part of Wilkesborough's population.

BM: Yeah, ninjas are okay, I guess. I've never met one, I don't think. Lee Van Cleef played one in a television series, The Master. There was a van Patten in the show, too.

ST: Obviously this is a work of fiction, but have you yourself worked cleaning dishes and skated on the streets?

JR: My wife makes me do the dishes now and then. I tried skateboarding a couple of times, unsuccessfully, but not in a long time.

BM: I worked at McDonalds. I've never skateboarded (unless you count riding down on your butt when you're little ... I guess that's more street luge than skateboarding, though).

ST: What's the creative process behind each page of Street Angel?

JR: Brian and I throw ideas around until we have a story we both like. One of us takes the story ideas we discussed and commits them to paper. We revise like mad. Once we're happy with the story, we break it into pages and panels. We read over it, make more changes, and then I draw it. Usually I make scratchy, little thumbnails before I pencil the actual pages.

ST: How did Slave Labor find our about your book?

JR: When we decided to seek a publisher, we submitted a copy of the mini-comic to them following their submission guidelines.

ST: A lot of people got to see the Street Angel mini-comic at SPX, can they expect to see anything different in issue 1 from Slave Labor?

JR: The script is basically the same. We revised the dialogue a tiny amount here and there, but it's pretty much the same. I redrew the entire issue. So they can expect to see 24 new pages. However, many of the pages follow the exact same layout as the mini. I wanted to clean up the art since this is my biggest audience so far. I wanted to make a good impression and some of the mini-comic art was rough in spots. Hopefully the whole book looks better now. And the covers are new and in color as well.

BM: Except this one is the special collector's first edition. So buy a lot of them to sell on eBay in 10 years.

ST: What adventures can we look forward to in future issues of Street Angel?

JR: The Incan empire falls at the hands of the Spanish Conquistadors. An astronaut crash-lands in the middle of Wilkesborough. Pirates and ninjas have a gang fight. Inti, the Incan sun god, opens a time warp. Virgins are sacrificed. That's all in issue 2. In issue 3, a critically injured Street Angel battles a horde of evil Satanists for her soul. Then we slow things down a bit in issue 4 and show a little more of Jesse Sanchez and the ghetto where she lives.

ST: Are you working on any other projects? What can we expect to see in the next year?

JR: I did a small story in an upcoming anthology called Monster Engine, published by Toby Craig. That should be at APE (though I will not). It's a diverse collection of monster-themed stories from some talented cartoonists.

Currently, I am working on a chapter for the next Orchid book. It should debut at SPX and it's going to be very nice I think. There are a lot of great, young cartoonists in it and the anthology itself is built around a brilliant idea. So keep an eye peeled for that.

ST: Will you be at any conventions this year, if so which ones?

JR: I plan to attend SPACE in Columbus. It's my favorite show. I will also be at Mocca and SPX. We might attend Pittsburgh Comicon since we're local. I wasn't happy with it last year, so haven't decided yet whether we're attending it or not. If we decide to, I'll post it on the website.

BM: I've been to one convention — last year's Pittsburgh Comicon. It was very depressing. Linda Grey was there though, so, I mean, that's cool, right? It's just a weird show.

ST: Any last words?

JR: For anyone interested in Street Angel, visit my website. I'm trying to keep it updated with links to reviews, interviews, news, extra art, previews, etc.

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